So This Is It
by One day I'll be a dinosaur
Summary: Life if Leo and the CO never found out future Chris' relation to them.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N this used to have footnotes, I have edited them out. This is the same chapter with the same information just in a better format. **

Chris sighed as he watched the three women in front on him. Piper was in a bad mood and trying to goad her sisters into an argument. She missed Leo and as neither he nor Chris were around to around to take her mood out on they would have to do. It was times like this that Chris was glad he had been 'Halliwell Hide and Seek Champion' five years running. You wouldn't know to look at it but it was perfectly possible for someone to orb in to the gap between the tops of the cupboards and the ceilings, and lay there comfortably spying.

Leo had finally made the permanent move to Elder, the darklighter attack being just too much and Piper was taking it out on anyone and everyone. Chris grinned to himself. He knew both Leo and Piper blamed him for their marital problems. But this was what caused Leo to leave originally too. He had been staying with the sisters as when he was promoted they couldn't find a replacement whitelighter, what with the titans decimating everyone. So Leo had stuck around until Gideon had driven him away. Leo returned to the sisters, as their Elder whitelighter, until Wyatt was kidnapped during Chris' birth when Leo orbed down at Paige's frantic calls.

Chris knew he wouldn't get anything helpful out of the sisters anytime soon. With Piper in a mood and taking it out on her sisters they would all gang up on him so he orbed away. Now that he was conceived there was one less consequence of his family connection to them being discovered. Chris didn't like to think of it as revealing his identity to them, being a Halliwell didn't make him who he was. When he had left Halliwell was synonymous with evil, he was the only one of his generation to not join Wyatt, he was the black sheep of the family.

Sometimes he wondered why he didn't just kill Wyatt, it was so much easier. But learning that the root of it all came from this time, from his birth, he couldn't kill Wyatt for something which was his fault. And logically he couldn't stop himself from being born, so he was going to save Wyatt, and if he failed, rather than risk time, he would then kill Wyatt, and kidnap his baby self. The baby he would leave somewhere, to grow up far away from the sisters so they'd never know of his act of fratricide.

Over the course of Piper's pregnancy Chris distanced himself from the family. The less they remembered him the better, he still kept an eye on them and sent them off every now again. They all had questions about this child, were they new to this timeline? Had Chris spilt Piper and Leo in an attempt to stop the conception?

So he stayed away, let them have what they wanted, normal lives. Let Piper deal with the pain and worry of Leo gone and another child of his on the way. She went on a demon killing spree. She was so angry and part of her hoped if she got hurt then he'd come back. With them preoccupied with their own and Piper's drama Chris was able to dedicate more time to Wyatt and do what needs must without worrying about Leo finding out and accusing.

Piper was just hours shy of labour when he killed Gideon, it took the power born of from his contraception on the ghostly plain. He could return there, that was where he felt he belonged, but the power of Leo being an Elder, his immortality overcame the call death had on Chris. All it took was for him to let go, it felt like returning to where he belonged, it wasn't hard to take Gideon with him

Piper woke up to find a baby, another boy, he was tiny and where was the flood of love she had had with Wyatt? The new baby bonding was put off by the disappearance of Gideon. Whatever was powerful enough to and wanted to kidnap or kill an Elder was a danger to them all. By the time they realised they would probably never find anything out Chris was a toddler and smiled more at his Grandfather and barely recognised his mother.

Due to, at first, the hunt for Gideon, and later Piper's feelings of guilt and inadequacies, mixed in with undiagnosed post-natal depression, Chris spent a lot of time with his grandfather. Victor loved him and it was always a joy to have the boy around. Eventually, when Chris was six months old Victor moved to a two bed place, where Chris had his own room. Even years later when both Wyatt and Chris visited it was always known as Chris' Room.

They called him Chris as Piper wanted to honour Leo and his family. Leo returned on Wyatt's third birthday, he wanted to reconnect with his son and his family, and had used the excuse of Wyatt needed training and direct guidance form the Elders. Leo volunteered himself, and not being cruel, they allowed him leave to return to Earth, for his son.

Wyatt, who recognised Leo as the presence who watched down on him from Up There, was pleased to see Leo. Chris, who was sickly, and overwhelmed by the screaming children hyper on cake running around his home, hid from this new stranger. Piper was too blinded by it being Leo, her Leo, whom she still loved being there, too much notice what Chris was doing.

Leo didn't know what to make of Chris. He resented the memories brought back by the name but never had the heart to tell Piper that the reason he became a doctor was because he watched his father waste away and die of an illness. An illness which meant he couldn't provide for his family and made him bitter, and spend what little money they had on drink. Leo also wanted to be a doctor so he could help his mother patch herself up with more than just make up.

Chris was always ill so could never play in the same way Wyatt did. He was much more intune with death and ghosts than other Halliwells were. So he spent far too much time talking to people nobody else could see, it unnerved Leo.

For the first three months after Leo's return they never discussed Chris, it was only when he caught him orbing that he asked. Shocked and overjoyed that he had a second child Leo tried to bond with him. But there was too much baggage. The name, Wyatt being jealous of Chris receiving his attention, and the fact that he was so fragile meant father and son bonding was almost impossible. Chris also spent a lot of time at Victor's, having a small young child, who wasn't well or powerful around a demon attacks just wasn't sensible.

And so unintentionally Chris never was as close as the rest of the family. They all loved each other but they didn't really know each other.


	2. Chapter 2

Paige rushed into the kitchen. "I've got a lead on Gideon. Chris!"

Piper sighed, Gideon has disappeared almost seven years ago. Nothing had ever come from it and so she had stopped worrying about it. But every now and again Paige would watch _Cold Case_ and want to figure out what happened.

"Paige honey Chris was a baby, and nobody ever comes after him. His birth and Gideon's disappearance were a coincidence." She put down her paper and started pulling out ingredients, if Paige was here then her kids would be too, they were always hungry and Piper loved to feed them.

"No, the other Chris, future boy. Think about it. I know he stopped turning up slowly but around the time of Gideon's disappearance we never saw him again. Maybe he did it, maybe that's why he was here. Or maybe they got him too. If we look for Chris we could find Gideon too."

Piper poured milk into flour, and cracked some eggs. She hadn't thought about that Chris in years. He turned up, ruined their lives and then went away, they were so thankful he was gone they never questioned it. Getting close to the Charmed Ones he could have used their power to help him do something to Gideon. It made sense.

"What do we know about him? Do you have a motive?"

"To be honest all I remember was he whined a lot, he wasn't a great whitelighter. He never opened up or relaxed. He never told us why he was here and he just disappeared. I'm surprised we let him into our lives to such the extent that we did."

Piper hummed in agreement, she folded blueberries into her batter mixture as the twins came running in chased by Wyatt. "Mommy, tell them to give me back my controller, I was winning." Paige sighed and took charge, her girls had realised that by ganging up on Wyatt they could win, as he was older he was expected to be more in control. However Piper was ridiculously protective of her son and Wyatt knew that if he came to her she would side with him.

"Wyatt did you do anything to make the girls take your controller." He crossed his arms and looked down at his feet looking adorably grumpy, "he kicked over our lego building Mommy." Paige gave them all a stern look, kids were such hard work.

Taking them all into the other room telling them all off Paige left Piper thinking. She turned on the hob and heated up a pan. Other Chris did seem like a good lead into Gideon's disappearance. When they first looked into it Phoebe came up with a spell that would improve her empathetic abilities so she would feel what Gideon was feeling. It was an attempt to try and connect with him so that could find him. The Elders had refused to let them do it though. Something about Elders being Elders and witches could never understand them. This spell might give them a clue into Chris and the Elders should have no objection.

With Phoebe away on vacation with Coop, a second honeymoon, Piper didn't want to disturb her, so she and Paige would have to rewrite it. When her sister returned to the kitchen she explained her plan while they plated up pancakes.

"Dammit this should have worked." Paige sat down in a huff, kicking at a cardboard box in the attic she winced at the sound of something breaking.

Piper rolled her eyes, "honey, by now we should know that means it definitely won't work." She got up and went down to the kitchen, leaving children alone for more than ten minutes always seemed to end in tears.

It would seem they would have to investigate Chris the hard way. But despite Paige watching a lot of cop shows Piper knew they didn't really have the skills to do this. If only they hadn't burnt their bridges with Darryl, she felt bad immediately after thinking this. Darryl was a friend not just someone to use. It was times like this she hated her life, it forced her to think in such ruthless terms.

Chris was sick again and Piper hadn't wanted Wyatt to catch anything. So here he was at his grandfather's again. Although Victor loved to have his grandson with him, at the moment they were playing duck duck goose. He wasn't sure why Chris had so much fun with it when it was just the two of them but he giggled and grinned throughout the whole of it.

It was when they were eating a lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches that Chris suddenly jumped up from his chair and collapsed. He hit his head hard of the edge of the table as he went down. Panicking Victor dialled 911.

It was only when Chris was in ER that he called his daughter. Wyatt answered the house phone, "hey Gramps, we're having blueberry pancakes, Aunty Paige came round. I raced in my game really really fast and I won." Victor breathed out and sighed, Wyatt was just adorable and so happy, it shocked him how much he loved that child. It made him tear up, Wyatt was whole and healthy while Chris was groggy and talking to a doctor about his hurty head.

"Wyatt, I need to talk to your mom." He heard Wyatt run away shouting 'Mooooooooooom'. He then heard Piper's gentle scolding before she answered.

"Hello?"

"Piper," his voiced cracked with tears, Chris was okay but he had gotten hurt on his watch. Nothing had happened to Chris under his care before and it was more shocking for Victor than Chris.

"Chris is okay, he's fine, he just fell over and knocked his head," he heard her gasp, "he's okay but can you come meet us at memorial hospital." She said she'd be there soon and hung up.

Chris waited until the doctor had left before he turned to the woman in the corner of the room, "hello, my head hurts, why are you here?"

She just looked at him, "did you just die? That's okay doing new stuff is scary, you can hold my hand if you want? The first time I went to school my brother held my hand it made me feel better and I wasn't nervous." She came forward and held his hand. "Dying is okay, I think I died once, I remembered it. But then I hit my head and then I'm not sure because I'm here and there's no tall scary old guy."

"When I was alive," the woman seemed to be thinking aloud more than talking to him, "I was born a boy, and I spent most of my life hiding and being scared and I hated myself. But now I'm dead and I'm the woman I always wanted to be. Maybe when you die you get what you really want. I didn't live the best life but I think I'm going to be okay." She looked down at him and smiled. "Thank you for holding my hand. If you are ever scared I'll come back and hold your hand too." Chris nodded, easily accepting this. The two chatted a little more until Death came, as he waved goodbye to his new friend, Marie, he thought it strange as he had never met Marie last time.

Piper rushed into the hospital, Chris and her father were sitting together. She grabbed Chris and pulled him into a hug. "What the hell happened? You're meant to keep him safe. If I wanted him to get hurt he'd stay at home."

"Piper."

"No Dad, I'm sorry but we're going home. I'm not letting Chris stay with you again, not until I know you can look after him." She pulled Chris after her and got into the car.

She sat in the car trying to calm down before she started driving. "Mommy," Chris sniffled at her, "are you taking Grampa away from me cos I was naughty and got hurt. I was in the past and then I hit my head on the table."

Piper sighed, she knew that when children played pretend they could jump around and weren't the most sensible. She drove them home, she would apologise to her father later. She needed him and had let her temper get ahead of her.

As soon as Leo walked through the door from magic school he was accosted by Wyatt, he was rambling on about how he had won his races on his game. He picked his son up "that's great Champ." He carried him into the kitchen where Chris was stirring and helping his mother with dinner.

"Daddy, today I went to an island with all these women and we came up with a plan. They taught me how to fight and they said they wanted to help. It was the end of the world, it was scary but we were really good friends." Leo looked at him then up at Piper who shrugged. Patting Chris on the head Leo took Wyatt outside to play a ball game.

Chris watched him go and Piper was worried about that look, weary, hurt, confused, yet understanding. "I wish Daddy loved me like he loves Wyatt." Piper was shocked and reached out to her youngest. A loud crash and a window wobbled. Piper stormed off to tell the others to be more careful, Chris' comment forgotten.

The Halliwells never connected the spell that Piper and Paige had connected with Chris gaining memories of the other timeline. When Chris would speak of it his family would think he was playing a game. He soon learnt not to talk about it.

Accept with Marie, despite having moved on when Chris was distressed she would come to him. He would talk to her; she would help him sort out what had happened to him, and what had happened to Chris.


End file.
